Dealing with disability as ‘matter out of place’: emotional issues in the education of learners with visual impairment

ABSTRACT

Globally, education of children with disabilities increasingly occurs in inclusive school settings, requiring specialised teacher education. Scholars emphasise relational and instrumental skills, to overcome prejudice and exclusion. Visual impairment (VI) is emotionally evocative, presenting particular challenges to inclusion. Using data from in-service teacher education for VI inclusion in South Africa, this theoretical paper explores the personal and emotional barriers which teachers must negotiate surrounding the ‘new reality’ of VI in their classrooms if successful inclusion is to be achieved, and how teacher education may support this. We set qualitative data from an in-service short course for teachers of VI learners against ideas from disability studies, critical psychoanalysis and anthropology, conceptualising relational issues arising from VI in the classroom. Due to VI's evocation of unconscious anxieties in the observer, we argue that the experiences and needs of children with VI may be felt as ‘matter out of place’ in the classroom, confounding inclusion. Teacher anxiety threatens the capacity for containment and creativity, undermining the secure relationship which is elemental to successful learning. To manage the experiences, feelings and needs of VI learners, teachers require education which facilitates processing of their own emotions surrounding this evocative form of disability.

KEYWORDS:

• Visual impairment
• inclusive education
• relational competence
• unconscious
• psychoanalysis
• teacher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The findings reported here are based on research funded by the European Union under Grant AFS/2016/377-805 – Strengthening teaching for children with profound hearing, visual and intellectual disabilities in South Africa. and Christoffel Blinden Mission Germany (CBM) under project number 3394-EU-MYP (project number) to the University of Cape Town, and by an endowment from the European Union to the University of Cape Town and no restrictions have been imposed on free access to, or publication of, the research data. This work was supported by European Commission [grant number DCI-AFS/2015/150345-3/3].

Notes on contributors

Brian Watermeyer

Brian Watermeyer trained as a clinical psychologist (M.A. Clin. Psych.) at the University of Cape Town, before completing a doctorate in psychology (D. Phil), focusing on disability studies, at Stellenbosch University. He was the first editor of South Africa’s first major text in disability studies, entitled Disability and Social change: A South African Agenda, published in 2006 (HSRC Press). His second book, Towards a Contextual Psychology of Disablism, was published internationally by Routledge in 2013. His most recent book is The Palgrave handbook of disability and citizenship in the Global South (New York: Palgrave), edited by B. Watermeyer, J. McKenzie, and L. Swartz (2019). Dr Watermeyer has an extensive list of international journal publications, book chapters, and media appearances as a disability scholar and activist. He teaches postgraduate programmes in disability and clinical psychology, as well as guest lecturing in medicine and rehabilitation science.

Judith McKenzie

Dr Judith McKenzie is an associate professor in the Disability Studies Division at the University of Cape Town in the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. She is director of the research unit, Including Disability in Education in Africa (IDEA) which aims to promote the inclusion of disability in education at all levels, both formal and informal, in Africa and beyond, to ensure no one is left behind in the pursuit of equitable quality education and lifelong learning.

Jane Kelly

Dr Jane Kelly is a Research Officer in the Centre for Social Science Research at the University of Cape Town where she supports and co-manages research activities on three inter-related projects: HEY BABY (Helping Empower Youth Brought up in Adversity and their Babies and Young Children), Adolescent Engagement and Participation, and a Global Fund Strategic Initiative project that aims to support AGYW (Adolescent Girls and Young Women) HIV incidence reduction and optimal HIV-related outcomes in five focus countries in Africa.